Divergence
by Dance Away
Summary: AU genderswitch. A MattxMello story. Girl!Matt. Matt arrives at Wammy's and everyone assumes she's a boy.
1. Chapter 1

AU genderswitch. A MattxMello story. Girl!Matt. Matt arrives at Wammy's and everyone assumes she's a boy.

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except in my dreams.

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When I first came to Wammy's everyone mistook me for a really effeminate boy. Part of me was kinda offended (my girlie side apparently) but mostly I thought it was pretty hilarious. To be fair, I turned up with torn clothes, really short hair and my goggles on my face so I suppose it was an easy mistake to make. But seeing as I was at a school for supposed "genii", I decided to run with the whole "yeah I'm a guy" thing and see if anyone could figure out that I wasn't. It was sorta my own personal joke. I have a lot of those, so I always end up laughing my ass off at inappropriate moments and it freaks people out a bit.

Anyway, to add to the masculine persona I was making, when Roger told me to pick a new name I decided on Matt 'cause it's a pretty manly name and it begins with M. All awesome names begin with M. This confirmed to the other kids that this new androgynous child was in fact a boy. Roger, I assume, knew that I was a girl and gave me a sorta disapproving look but he didn't question my name choice. At the time I thought it was slightly odd but then I met Near and Mello and twenty other kids with all sorts of habits and fetishes and personality disorders (Mr Wammy called them "quirks") and realised that I was living in an mental asylum.

Roger didn't stay too long. He doesn't really like children, even if they are smarter that his adult friends. I suppose he sees us as being "improper". Roger is a very prim and proper sort of person himself, so I was just another crazy, gender confused, improper little girl to him. Roger prefers all the administration and bookish stuff, so he never spent too much time with us kids anyway. So after Roger sorted out my new name, I was left with this lady called Alice. Alice was a real nice lady but strict as hell when she wanted to be. She took me by the hand and led me to my new room. At that point in time, I was still blissfully unaware of the existence of that psychotic blonde who we all know as Mello. That didn't last long though. Alice left me to settle in by myself but I'd barely set foot in the room when Mello came barging up to me to give me an earful. You see, my room was in actual fact _his_ room and I just happened to be staying in it. That's actually what the little asshole said.

"Oi, you! Don't you even _think_ about getting comfortable in there. That's _my_ room. You're just staying there, got it?" He was furious with me. I was pretty angry too. No one wants to share their room but it's not like I'd exactly had a choice in the matter. There was no need to get that shitty with a complete stranger.

But honestly, until Mello started yelling at me in an unmistakably masculine voice, I would have sworn he was a girl. If someone had pictures of the both of us and got people to guess which one was actually a girl, they would've picked Mello every time. I found the thought bloody funny and instead of giving him a piece of my mind like I was going to, I just ended up laughing hysterically. At first this just made Mello even madder 'cause he thought I was taking the piss or something, but then I just laughed my ass off even more and I think he thought I was a complete nutter 'cause in the end he stormed off again and I finally managed to stop giggling and drag my bag in the room.

Mello is indisputably crazy. Absolutely off his rocker. And that fact was clearly on display in his room. It was _so_ unnaturally clean. There wasn't a wrinkle in the bed covers or a stray piece of lint on the floor. Every book was perfectly aligned, every title in alphabetical order. I could see why Mello had been so angry at the thought of sharing a room with me. Everything I wore pretty much screamed "untidy".

"_That_ is your side. Stay on it and don't touch any of my things or I'll beat you so hard you'll wish you'd never been born." Mello imperiously directed me to my designated half of the room. I dumped my bag beside cabinet and threw myself down on the bed. I was tired as hell 'cause I'd been up since before six that morning to catch the train up to Winchester.

"Put that away! Don't just come in and make a fucking mess!" he hissed. I rolled my eyes.

"Or what? You'll _make_ me put it away? I thought I wasn't supposed to get comfortable. But seeing as I'm sharing this room with ya, what your name?" He bristled when I brought up his own words and spoke venomously to me.

"Mello. My name's Mello and don't forget it because Roger's gonna want to know who gave you that fat lip."

"What fat-"

Ow.

"Now go cry like the wimp you are."

"Fuck you Malcom."

"I said it's _Mello_. What're you, deaf?"

"Mello? _Mello?_ Ha! Hahaha!" God I just about pissed myself when I first heard his name, I laughed that hard. And Mello was _so_ angry. It's a wonder he didn't hammer me. He probably _would_ have if Alice hadn't called out for him. Instead I just got a death glare and a punch on the shoulder on his way out of the room.

It would be fair to say that Mello and I started out on the wrong foot.

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Any comment would be greatly appreciated. Points if you can guess which books I've been reading lately. :D


	2. Chapter 2

AU genderswitch. A MattxMello story. Girl!Matt. Matt arrives at Wammy's and everyone assumes she's a he.

Hey, sorry about the delay! I've been indecisive to the point of inactive over this chapter. But it's gone on long enough so now, I post!

Disclaimer- you know the drill. I own nothing.

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I slept pretty badly that night. My bed had all the comfort of lying on a rock and the atmosphere in the room was icy 'cause me and Mello weren't talking. Actually I was really lonely, so when I was sure Mello was asleep (and I _was_ sure, you've never heard snoring like it I swear to god) I let myself have a bit of a cry. It's not like it was the first time I'd ever been lonely in my life, hell I was used to being alone more often than not and normally I enjoyed it, but this was a bit different. I was in a foreign country, in a strange home and I was just a damn kid so it sorta upset me. People sometimes forget that just because you're smart that it doesn't make you mature. I suppose I was feeling kinda bitter about ending up at Wammy's in the first place. When I'd caught the train to Winchester that morning there was this lady at the station with her two kids that she was taking out for the day and the whole time they just bitched about being dragged out early in the morning. I really wanted to shake them and tell them to wake the fuck up. They had a perfectly good, sane mother and they were whinging about getting a bit of stupid beauty sleep. They weren't even beautiful.

My first morning was a minor disaster, partly due to a lack of sleep 'cause of Mello's snoring (I'm not bitching, I'm just stating fact) and partly because I'm just really stupid a lot of the time. I was one of those oblivious kids who would always run across the road without looking, straight in front of a car. I'm not kidding, I really did. So when the murmurs of laughter reached my ears at breakfast, it came as no surprise to me that I was the source. Turned out I had my pants on inside out with the tag sticking out at the front. So I went to the bathroom and put them on the right way and when I got back Mello had turned up. Apparently this was a big deal, 'cause the other kids all thought he was god or something. Kinda creepy if you ask me.

Anyway, I can't be sure if pouring salt on my cereal instead of sugar was 'cause of my obliviousness or 'cause of Mello being an asshole, but seeing as I had no proof other than Mello stiffling his laughter I will go with my stupidity. The other kids hadn't noticed so I ate it anyway 'cause I was trying to avoid more embaressment and let me tell you, it was _foul_. It was probably some sort of weird karma for drowning my cereal in sugar on a regular basis. I drank a ton of water that day and pissed nothing.

Finally, when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I went to go back up to Mello's bedroom and I tried to push on the door clearly marked 'pull'. Twenty kids snorted with laughter as I walked straight into the door I thought was gonna give way. It was pretty humiliating to have kids like Near cracking a smile at your expense. Then, lo and behold, Roger came through the door which had thwarted my exit to get himself a fresh cup of coffee. He saw my bruised lip and saw the empty coffee pot. His face crinkled with concern and he walked over to the coffee pot.

Mello lied. Roger knew who'd given me that fat lip and Roger didn't give a damn. Mello got a little reprimand "I thought I told you no fighting Mello?" and that was it. Roger got his coffee and disappeared to god knows where. _I_ went back up to _Mello_'s room to put my things away. I didn't _want _to... but when we had been ignoring each other the previous night, Mello kept throwing my bag really these nasty glares like he thought that if he gave it an evil enough look he could will it out of existence. I had this strange idea that Mello would set my things on fire with his eyes if he saw them messing up _his_ room too often and it's not like I had too many personal things to begin with anyway.

My day started very badly, but it picked up very quickly in the unlikeliest of places- the classroom, and thanks to the unlikeliest of people- Near.

You see, me and Mello got off on the wrong foot when we met but when _Near_ and Mello met, they got off on the wrong _everything.

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It looks shorter than the last chapter but it actually isn't. Expect a lot more dialogue and character interaction in the coming chapters. Guess which books I've been reading lately if you can... I've had a very good guess already...

And please leave a review. Any advice is greatly appreciated._  
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	3. Chapter 3

AU genderswitch. A MattxMello story. Girl!Matt. Matt arrives at Wammy's and everyone assumes she's a he.

Disclaimer : I own Death note... not.

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The other kids at Wammy's didn't take to me. To be fair, they didn't really take to strangers at all. But I'd already been punched by Mello and everyone took that as a hint to _really_ avoid me. Plus it was pretty obvious that there was some really intense competition between the kids at Wammy's. It was also incredibly obvious that none of these genii considered me to be a threat in their little competition. I was kinda insulted.

Anyway, the first class we had was with this old guy called Mr Toray. He was an old man with a silver horse-shoe and a very slow and laboured manner of speaking. He insisted on doing a role-call at the start of every class. It was pretty bad 'cause I always ended up laughing my ass off at the names he read out. Turned out, the name Mello was pretty tame. Ulysses, Karate, Friday and Yahtzee were my favourites. Names not people. I didn't like the people.

Mr Toray stoically ignored me throughout the entire lesson, only raising his voice and speaking with a sharper tone if I was giggling. Then at the end of the lesson he simply swept out of the room without even saying goodbye to the class. He was strange. Mello, who had ignored me during the lesson too, jumped out of his seat at the front of the classroom and stormed to where I was lounging in my chair at the back of the room. All eyes followed him.

"Do you think you're some sort of bloody comedian? You'd better shut up if you know what's good for you." he hissed.

I didn't really know what to say. Roger's lack of concern for me that morning spoke volumes. Obviously no one was going to stop Mello from beating me to a bloody pulp if he felt like it. I _wanted _to tell Mello to get fucked but my aching lip reminded me that Mello had a short temper. I thought that maybe silence was the best policy. This theory was thrown out the window approximately three seconds later when Mello hit me anyway. I fell off my chair and onto my ass. Bastard.

"What the hell?" It wasn't my greatest come-back.

The rest of the class was tittering under their breath at the sight of someone _other_ than them being on the receiving end of Mello's wrath.

"What Mello is trying to communicate is that your laughter is very distracting." Near was the only child still facing the front of the room, his eyes focused on a book in front of him.

The kids' laughter died out immediately. Mello's expression was positively murderous as he turned to look at Near. Honest to god, if looks could kill, we would have been attending Near's funeral later the same day. I hadn't heard about the whole Near and Mello rivalry at this point but it was instantly obvious that Mello hated this kid, possibly more than he hated me. It's pretty bad, but I was kinda glad that I wasn't number one on Mello's hate list.

In the afternoon, we had compulsory physical education. Genii don't take kindly to exercise. I include myself in that generalisation. I exclude Mello. Mello was blessed with brains and brawn. Asshole. I wasn't bad at physical exercise, I just prefered not to do it 'cause I'm lazy.

That day we were playing football. Soccer to you Americans. I'd never really played before and I wasn't good. So it was by pure chance that I scored a goal. I'd spent most of the game avoiding the ball as much as possible. Mello was out to get me 'cause somehow Near had managed to skip the class. Damn Near. The ball kept whizzing past my head when I was no where near the play. Needless to say, Mello was carrying his team to an easy victory. Then he kicked the ball at my head again while I was facing the other way and wasn't paying attention. It was pure chance that the ball ricocheted off the back of my head and into the goal.

Mello was not happy. He screamed bloody murder at the goal keeper for not stopping the goal and gave me the death glare he'd given Near earlier as he started ranting about how I hadn't even done anything.

"That's so bloody stupid! You weren't even doing anything! That was nothing! You didn't even really score it, you just got in the fucking way!"

"Mello!" that was the teacher's attempt to stop Mello swearing.

"If Matt was in no way responsible for the goal, then does that not make it an own goal caused by you Mello?"

I could have killed Near right then. He hadn't even been watching the game! Mello stiffened at the sound of Near's voice and he flushed with embarrassment. Then he looked at me as if I were the one who had said it. That was when I knew _I'd_ be the one to wear it. Honestly, you'd think that he hadn't even won by about a dozen goals. But Mello is a perfectionist and that one goal, although entirely accidental and superfluous to the overall outcome, was a blot on Mello's perfect game. _I_ was the blot on Mello's perfect game. Damn.

Mello was like a ticking time bomb for the rest of the day. I could feel his glare on me everywhere I went and the message behind it was clear. I was so dead. I couldn't even crack a laugh when I heard Roger say 'Nello' instead of Mello at dinner. Okay, I'm exaggerating. I _did_ laugh when I heard him say that 'cause Mello's face was just priceless. But I did shut myself up quickly before Mello turned and saw me doing it.

I spent the rest of the night firmly within hearing distance of Roger and Alice. One of the kids, Linda, looked like she might come up and talk to me but then she looked at Mello and walked back to her friends. People seem to think Linda's some kinda air-head but even _she_ wasn't stupid enough to risk Mello's wrath.

Unfortunately we had to go to bed eventually. I changed clothes in the bathroom as slowly as possible, hoping that Mello had timetabled the amount of sleep he needed so that he'd already be out to it by the time I got back. There was no such luck. Mello couldn't have ended the day happy if I'd gotten away with that sorta transgression. It wasn't that bad 'cause it turned out Mello _did_ like to be asleep by a certain time but it still fucking hurt. He just punched me in the gut a few times and threw me on the floor.

"You're really starting to get on my fucking nerves you bloody sissy. If I hear you laughing again I'm gonna punch you in the throat so hard that you won't be able to talk for a week, you got it?"

"P-pot..." I was sorta winded.

"What?"

"Pot. You're a pot" Mello looked at me all suspiciously, like I was mental or something.

"You're crazy. That or you're a complete idiot."

"Pot."

"Stop saying that!" Mello snapped.

"But you are..."

"Shut up!"

"Haha. Calling me a sissy, look in the bloody mirror. You're the pot calling the kettle black. And you're getting on my nerves more, dickhead."

Sometimes, I just don't know when to quit. Mello lunged at me and tackled me to the ground. I yelled out in shock although I really should have been getting used to that kinda thing by then. We started scrapping again and I was, rather predictably, quickly overpowered. Luckily for me, Alice heard me yelling and came barging in to see what was going on. Alice pulled Mello off me and began yelling at him for beating me up. Mello looked rather repentant when Alice started saying something about behaving like a Christian but refused to apologise to me. When Alice had made Mello promise not to attack me in my sleep (a promise which sounded suspiciously like it had been made several times before), we turned off the lights and got into bed.

"At least you cleaned up your bloody mess, you freak."

Apparently that is the Mello equivalent of an apology. You know, entirely unrelated to the subject and a backhanded compliment laden with insults. At the time I only heard the insult though.

"Thanks... dickhead."

When I woke up the next morning, _someone _had drawn on my face.

I was _really_ starting to hate Mello.

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Hope you enjoyed it. Matt and Mello won't hate each other forever, don't worry!

Good or lame? Leave a review and tell me please. :D

Also, I'm not sure if silver horse-shoe is a term you'll be familiar with. Basically it means he's got grey hair with a bald spot on top giving him... a silver horse-shoe. Yeah.

And also, Americans call football soccer. Of course, most of you will know that already.


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